Fuki Gohan (Rice)

I first introduced fuki (bog rhubarb) in the fuki leaf ribbons that I posted on May 3rd. Originally, I bought the rhubarb to make the Fuki rice but the way my blog worked out, I didn't get around to posting the rice recipe until now. Maze gohan (mixed rice) dishes, not to be confused with fried rice, are one of my favorite recipes. They’re are filling and you don’t need a lot of okazu to go along with your rice.

I realize that bog rhubarb is hard to come by, not only because it’s not readily available at most grocery stores, but also because it’s only available for a short time during the spring. I racked my brain trying to figure out a good substitute for it and the best I came up with was celery. Now, I know you’re going, she’s just talking crazy! Celery and rice seems like a boring and not so tasty combination BUT when prepped (and I’ll show you how) and cooked with fried tofu in a flavorful sauce, it is completely transformed! Today I’ll post the original fuki gohan recipe and tomorrow I’ll post my substitute celery gohan that stands on it’s own. It's good people!

This recipe takes some planning so be sure to plan accordingly if you're going to make this.

Fuki Gohan Ingredients
3/4 cups of cooked and prepared Fuki (roughly 12 stalks)
1(1/2) cups of Japanese rice (medium grain rice)
Dashijiru
2 whole age (fried tofu)
1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil

Ingredients for sauce:
1/2 Dashijiru
2 Tablespoons for soy sauce
1(1/2) Tablespoons of mirin
1 Tablespoon +1 teaspoon of sugar

1) Make the dashijiru. Wash the rice, and drain all the water. Replace the water with ichibandashi and fill up the pot until the dashijiru is just below the 2 line in your electric rice cooker. (This is because you’ll add sauce in later and you don’t want your rice to get mushy.) Soak in rice for 8 hours. It's best to soak it in the morning and it'll be ready for dinner. When you eat it, you'll see why.
2) Akuniki must be done for fuki to treat it’s naturally bitter and harsh flavor.
3) Heat a large pasta pot with hot water and add 1/8 cup of cooking ash or (nuka)rice bran. If you don’t have ash or rice bran, add a tablespoon of salt.
4) In addition to boiling it, itazuri (see #6) also helps loosen the tough skin. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of salt over the fuki and press down lightly. Make sure you turn it a few times to get all the sides.
5) Cut it so that it fits into the pot that you’re using but try to keep them as long as possible so that you can pull off the fibrous skin afterwards.
6) Boil the fuki for 3 minutes and drain. Make sure you wash off all the ash or rice bran if you used it.
7) At this point you might want to hit the switch for the rice.
8) Drop in a bowl of ice water and drain.
9) Peel off the skin with the edge of a knife.
10) Cut into 1.5-2 cm pieces.
11) Prepare age. In a small pot boil some water.
12) Add the age and boil for a minute.
13) Drain water and cut the age into thin strips.
14) Heat a frying pan and add the sesame seed oil.
15) Add the fuki and stir fry for about 1 minute.
16) Add the sauce ingredients but add the dashijiru first. If you add the sugar and soy sauce to a hot pan it will burn easily.
17) Simmer until the fuki is around the same consistency as rice. You don’t want to bite into something that’s a lot harder than the rice and you don’t want it to get mushy. Make sure you don’t let all the sauce simmer away.
18) After the rice switch goes off, let it steam in the rice cooker for 5 minutes. Add the contents of the frying pan and give everything a quick stir and close the lid.
19) Allow everything to steam for an additional 10 minutes. (This will allow the rice to absorb the sauce).
20) Serve rice in bowls and turn off the rice cooker so that the rice doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot.


The rice is soaked in dashijiru for 6-8 hours.


Fuki is washed, leaves are cut off and ready to go.


Salted for Itazuri.


This is what grounded rice bran looks like. If you buy it fresh from a rice distributor, make sure you toast it...or well you really don't want to know what the alternative is.


The rice bran is added to the boiling pot of water and in goes the fuki...except that they are too long! Oops, I gotta cut these in half.


When the fuki is done. Drain, give it a good wash and drop into an ice bath.


Peel the fibrous skin of the fuki. It should peel right off.


Look at all that fuki skin. This step is all worth it thought.


Chopped fuki.


Boil the age to drain some of the oil. This step will help the age absorb the sauce.


Cut the age into pieces.


Stir fry the fuki in sesame seed oil.


The age is added along with the sauce and simmered.


The rice has absorbed the sauce and is ready to be served.


Serve it in a bigger rice bowl. Although you may still get seconds. This rice may look simple but it's packed with flavor!